Kerala: Five held for smuggling high-end used cars from Bhutan; DTO among accused
Kochi (PTI): The Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate has arrested five persons from West Bengal and Assam in connection with the smuggling of high-end used cars from Bhutan, officials said on Saturday.
In a statement, Customs said the arrested persons were Biswadip Das (35) of Jaigaon in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, Dipak Patowary (57) of Paltanbazar in Kamrup district, Ayub Ali of Jogighopa in Bongaigaon district, MD Mostafa Ahmed (35) of Boladmari in Goalpara district and Jalal Mandal (31) of Chapar in Dhubri district. All four belong to Assam.
Customs officials said Patowary was the District Transport Officer (DTO) of Bongaigaon in Assam.
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The arrests were made following a widespread investigation conducted in Assam and West Bengal, with the assistance of police and Customs formations in the northeastern states, officials said.
"During an investigation by Assam Police, they were found to have registered 460 such vehicles using forged documents. The vehicles include foreign-made cars as well as Indian-made vehicles that were exported earlier and later smuggled back into the country without payment of Customs duties. These were then illegally registered using forged documents," Customs said.
The Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate, Kochi, launched "Operation Numkhor" last year after it was found that used vehicles, mostly high-end SUVs from Bhutan, were being illegally smuggled into India, re-registered in various states, and sold to buyers who claimed they were legally imported.
Last year, Customs seized several vehicles, including some belonging to film actors in Kerala, which had been sold to them by persons involved in the illegal smuggling of vehicles from Bhutan.
The Customs statement said Das, who was arrested on February 22 and is an employee of a major IT firm, was the mastermind behind the smuggling of vehicles from Bhutan.
He was apprehended near the India-Bhutan border and later brought to Kochi on a transit warrant before being remanded in judicial custody.
Customs will soon approach the court seeking the custody of the arrested persons for further investigation, officials said.
According to Customs, a recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) found that 15,849 vehicles with the same chassis and engine numbers were registered in multiple northeastern states.
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Nashik court sends ‘godman’ Kharat to 3-day police custody in 7th sexual exploitation case
Nashik (PTI): A court in Maharashtra's Nashik has remanded self-styled astrologer-cum-godman Ashok Kharat to police custody till April 29 in the seventh case of sexual exploitation registered against him.
Kharat, a former Merchant Navy officer arrested on March 18, is accused of sexually exploiting several women and indulging in large-scale financial fraud by claiming to have divine powers and knowledge of black magic.
In the seventh case, Kharat sexually exploited a married woman who had approached him in search of solutions to her family problems.
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The accused allegedly gave the woman something to drink, sexually assaulted her while her husband sat outside his office and threatened to kill her if she told anyone about it.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing into 12 cases of sexual exploitation and financial fraud registered against Kharat in Nashik and Ahilyanagar districts, on Sunday filed a request application in the court demanding his custody in the seventh case.
Kharat was produced in court for a virtual hearing in the seventh case on Monday.
The prosecution demanded six-day police custody for Kharat, citing the discovery of a locker in Kharat's house during the investigation, from which the police recovered two blank cheques and other documents, all of which have to be probed.
The court agreed to the prosecution's demand and remanded Kharat to three-day police custody till April 29 in the case.
Kharat has been at the centre of a political firestorm, as he was well-connected, and photographs of him with political leaders and other important members of society have been surfacing in mainstream and social media since his arrest.
